


Can't

by theGirlwithtoomanyOTPs



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/M, Fate, Fate & Destiny, Fate Worse Than Death, Pre-Canon, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-25 22:50:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3827881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theGirlwithtoomanyOTPs/pseuds/theGirlwithtoomanyOTPs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lin never had the courage to tell him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't

**Author's Note:**

> I truly believe shit happens to soul mates.
> 
> And I truly believed that Lin loved Tenzin so much that there must be a deep reason they broke it off.
> 
> Note: First time ever writing an A:LoK/A:tLA fic. And wow, I must love this ship so much to write them first before Korrasami O__o

They were soulmates, every one had been more than sure.

Spirits, she would have sworn to anybody who cared to hear it.

They still are, she thinks whenever their eyes refuse to meet in discomfort. After all, you couldn't erase that connection; the love, the memories, the kisses, the touches, the warmth and every thing else that made her heart clench whenever she thinks about it, accident or not. The discomfort itself was a message. That there was something between them, still. _(Not awkwardness. Lin was not one for that and Tenzin was too dignified and too well-bred.)_ There was something between them and it wasn't _history_. There was also something else. Somethingthere that tore them apart. Something.

Lin Beifong _knows_ what they had was irreplaceable. Beautiful wife and wonderful family counting. You couldn't replace something that _real_ and _potent_.

She could blame the fates or the spirits and everything else holy but in the end she blames herself no matter what.

She had been blessed enough to know who her perfect half was. But shit happens, really.

He was the last Airbender after his father. It was his duty, his destiny, to repopulate their kind. And she would have tried everything to make it work, contrary to popular belief. She would protect the city she loved, serve it, and be the wife he'd needed. She would have given everything. She loved him that much and he loved her that much to not make her have to choose.

It had just always been a question of _when_ , really. Because Lin always liked to plan things in her life. She wouldn't accept just yet.

She would have accepted his fourth proposal that next week. When the first signs of spring appeared. She would suprise him, she thought giddily, with a hand over her flat belly.

She wasn't the best with kids but she was sure when she had her own, she'd be motherly on her own way somehow. Oma and Shu forbid, she end up becoming like her mother. (Which was actually quite ironic since a big part of Lin knew that her mother would be a good role model in motherhood, despite certain imperfections. Toph Beifong had raised two daughters when no one believed her suitable for the job. They might never have had the perfect family life but they had managed just fine.) She and Tenzin would do better than 'just fine'. He would be such a wonderful father.

She kept it secret from everybody else but her mother. After all, when she stepped inside her mother's office, Toph all but screamed about her having two hearts and started cackling out loud about how the Twinkletoes Jr actually had balls. Lin wanted to shove soap in her mother's mouth.

She thought Chief Beifong would tell her off. But then again, this _was_ her knuckleheaded mother. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that she would be proud of her for following her steps through and through.

Things were on their way to becoming perfect, she had thought.

* * *

Spotting was fairly common enough. Nothing to be so cautious and panicky about. But nevertheless, Lin marched with shaking feet towards the small but trustworthy clinic just outside the edge of city. No need to alert anybody that the future Chief of the Republic City Police Department was going to...

* * *

The tiny heartbeats had stopped.

She can't. Not again. It would be dangerous for them both. She just didn't have the body for it.

She can't have another. She was asked to schedule immediately for the operations. It would be better not to risk herself again, they said. They're sorry, they said.

She dialed her mother's number with a shaking cold fingers but with a calm steady lifeless voice.

* * *

Three months in Gaoling should do her well, Toph agreed with the healers.

So they packed up with no words and left right after.

When she got back, Tenzin, who had gone out of his mind looking for his girlfriend could barely recognize her as the shadow of who she'd once been. He could not see where the Lin who had been so happy was.

She shut him out and pushed him away. She couldn't tell him she'd killed their baby. Lin buried herself in work as he left for the other Airtemples with no choice. He promised to come back as soon as he can and they'd fix things right away. He'd kissed her and left her crying in her bed for days.

Eight months later he came back with his arrows and found her all but married to her career more than ever. The bethrothal necklace he'd carved when he was twenty-three tucked in his pocket after a night of angry words, heated kisses and bruising touches that tried to replace the words that couldn't be said out loud because it made everything _too real_ for Lin. She couldn't tell him.

_That she wasn't the one who will help him build his dreams after all and she loved him too much to let him or the world suffer right along with her._

And that was that.

Pema provided comfort and love and warmth away from the confusion and heartbreak Lin Beifong caused the Avatar's son. In four months, the future of all the future Airbenders was engaged to the young and blushing acolyte.

Lin did not go to the wedding. (She was still reeling with hate and anger and hurt from trying to arrest the woman and having Tenzin protect her. She couldn't blame hormones or any of that crap anymore, she hadn't any more to justify the craziness she'd done.) She didn't send her gift or wishes. Spirits knew she wouldn't bite her cheek to _lie_ for the sake of social norms. Lin Beifong was an honest to Spirits, spittoon spitting, few words woman. It had already been beneath her to cause a racket like that. What remained of her pride and dignity wouldn't allow her to go. And she was afraid, for the first time, of people and their whispered words had she gone. She did not speak or see the Councilman for seventeen months.

She did by accident one night, walking home, exhausted from her drowning workload. Another riot here, a sprinkle of PR nightmare there, a couple of triad raids here and a few thieves and a bloody homicide to wrap up the day.

Lin wanted nothing more than to crawl to the cold and empty bed for what she hoped was a dreamless sleep that would last for at least a month or two. She needed a sort of reprieve for doing a great job. Spirits know the everlasting nightmares did not do her any favors.

She tiredly dragged her feet to a late open Fire Nation cuisine for some spicy fire flakes. Spicy foods always did managed to relieve some stress for her.

The shop had only a few customers then and she was definitely suprised to see _him_ there. He never really developed an affinity to hot foods. And then he moved and she saw a tiny but bulging figure beside him, pointing at the menu while the young man scribbled furiously as she spoke.

She was pregnant. Possibly craving. It would explain why they were there in the middle of the night.

She was frozen in her tracks as she watched Tenzin smile fondly at his wife and nodded dismissively towards the waiter when he turned to him.

Tenzin smiled at the acolyte and held her hand. She beamed all of a sudden, grabbed both his hands and placed them over her belly. Tenzin looked like he was about to cry.

She can't give him _that_.

They had been meant to be and yet she _couldn't_ have been more wrong for him.

**Author's Note:**

> Damn. Why does SS TenLin remind me of SS ShikaIno so much?
> 
>    
>  _Ohhhh..._  
> 


End file.
